Notice to our Readers, a short article by William Thomas Stead published in the Pall Mall Gazette, was the first installment in the hugely groundbreaking work of investigative journalism, The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon. Published on July 4, 1885, it details the purpose of the rest of the articles. Stead writes that, "The story of an actual pilgrimage into a real hell is not pleasant reading, and is not meant to be." The following articles would follow Stead's interviews with London sex workers, people who ran brothels and people who worked in them, in an attempt to garner support for the Criminal Law Amendment Bill, which would, among other things, raise the age of consent in Britain from 13 to 16. Most shocking, perhaps, is that for the purpose of proving that it could be done, Stead arranged for the purchase of a young girl, Eliza Armstrong.